The Liberal Democrat and Labour Lords are attempting to stop the Tories attacking Labour's funding through the Trade Union Bill. Both parties have expressed their concerns about how the Bill unfairly attacks the funding of a single party whilst doing nothing to look at the funds of others. Read the full article from the Independent here:

Happy New Year everyone. It’s Day 4 back in the office for the team here at unionstogether, and we’ve hit the ground running on the Trade Union Bill.

On Monday, the House of Lords debates and votes on the Bill for the first time. That’s not the end of the process. We still have Committee Stage, Report Stage, Third Reading and Ping Pong (yes, it’s actually called Ping Pong) before the Bill becomes law. That’s plenty of opportunities for us to make a difference.

Some 40 years after the Equal Pay Act came into force women still on average earn 19 per cent less than men; among part-time workers, the gap yawns to 38 per cent. One in four women are in low-paid or insecure work and women continue to be concentrated in the five Cs (catering, cleaning, caring, cashiering and clerical) – valuable jobs that deserve higher pay and more respect. But these sectors are scarred by the rise in more insecure, precarious working with agency working, temporary, zero and short-hours contracts. These types of working make it hard to calculate what earnings will be and to arrange childcare.

It is time to step back from the superficial Eurosceptic dogma emanating from right-wing politicians and the media. In reality, concrete new European Union legislation, legally binding decisions and case law over the past few years have continued to be positive for citizens’ and workers’ rights. The EU has a far from perfect record on standing up for social and workplace justice. But we should look more systematically at the benefits of the Europe-wide standards that are actually being adopted, rather than hoping that any future UK and devolved governments could do better in isolation.